Sunday did not start well. It also did not end well. The middle wasn't so great, either.
We were all set and ready to go to church. Kids all dressed and in the car. Me grabbing last minute items from the house. Lance starting the car. Only, no. The car would not start. It was dead. Mostly dead. There still seemed to be a little power, but it just would not start.
I remembered coming home the night before and seeing the driver's side door partially open. D'oh.
We tried jumping the battery. Nothing. I had to be at church to take care of RS stuff, so Lance got to stay at home with Tess. Cole claimed up and down that he really wanted to go to church, but I didn't believe him. Apparently Lance did, because Cole was put in our little Camry with his brothers.
Turns out, four year olds lie.
Cole did NOT want to be at church. He wanted to be naughty. He was pretty typically naughty during Sacrament Meeting, but nothing I couldn't handle. But then he FREAKED OUT in Primary, at one point kicking off his shoes and throwing them across the room.
*sigh*
So I left Sunday School to rescue the Primary workers from my monster child, and decided that the best thing to do was to take him to Sunday School with me. We sat in class for a while, and I quietly explained that this was "Mommy Primary", and wouldn't "Colie Primary" be more fun?
No. No it would not. (At least according to Cole.)
Then I talked about how we all have jobs to do at church. I explained Daddy's job (doing Cub Scouts stuff and Pack Meetings), Mommy's jobs (helping in Relief Society), and Spencer, Josh, Cole, and Tess's jobs.
"What is Colie's job at church?"
"Going to Primary."
"That's right. Everyone has a job to do, and your job is to go to Primary."
"I want to go to Primary."
"Will you be a good boy?"
"Yes."
"Will you throw your shoes?"
"No."
"Okay then."
Despite the fact that he had lied before, he seemed genuine this time and I believed him. Turns out he was telling the truth because he happily went back to Primary and behaved himself.
The fun didn't end, though. RS was a bit stressful, with starting late and having the Stake (it was ward conference) and just general RS calling mayhem. After church was over I needed to get some stuff done for an upcoming activity, but all three boys were going CRAZY because there was cake in the kitchen and they wanted cake but they didn't want to get cake by themselves and would I take them and Mommy-Mommy-MOMMY!!
Plus I wore heels that I forgot really hurt my feet. So by then I was annoyed and in pain. If I were a bear I would have probably eaten someone.
I finally got everyone in the car, only to be told that Josh had left his scriptures somewhere in the church.
Growl.
No way was I going back in there with three crazy boys, so I hobbled back into the church alone. His scriptures were right by the little pulpit in the RS room - where ward choir practice was currently underway. I knew that if I went back without his scriptures he would FREAK OUT, so I totally interrupted choir to get Josh's beloved, beat up copy of The Book of Mormon. (Sorry, Renee.)
By the time I got home my mood matched the weather - dark and stormy. I didn't want to eat lunch while watching Duck Dynasty, as we usually do after church. (I know.) I just wanted to bundle up on my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy on Hulu.
My computer had other, more suicidal plans. I picked it up off of the kitchen counter, where I keep it, and started to walk out of the kitchen. The cord got caught on a cabinet handle, it tugged back, I tripped, and the laptop fell. On the hard kitchen floor.
Dead. Dead dead dead.
Tears. Tears tears tears.
Lance the Computer Czar was able to pull all of my info off of the laptop, but the screen was destroyed. No coming back from that, and no sense getting it replaced when for a couple of hundred dollars more I could get a brand new, better laptop.
More tears. Tears tears tears.
We looked online for a new laptop and decided that it would be better to wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. TWO WEEKS without a laptop?! The horror!!
By this point I was done. Done done done.
I decided it would probably be better if I didn't touch anything else all day, so I settled onto the couch to watch some Duck Dynasty with Lance.
Halfway through the first episode the weather radio went crazy. And the sirens starting going off. And the heavens opened and the winds howled and for the first time in the 9.5 years we've lived in the Midwest we woke a sleeping child to take cover in the basement. Tess was pretty disoriented and sleepy and a bit scared. So was I.
And then the power went out.
This was odd, because our power rarely goes out. Then we realized that we couldn't make phone calls on our cells or access the internet. Eerie.
The storm passed and we decided to go upstairs to play a game of LIFE. (One of Spencer and Josh's favorites.) It was about as fun as playing LIFE with 4 kids can be. (Read: not very.) Josh decided he wanted two wives. Lance had a dozen children. Spencer was only halfway through the board by the time the rest of us were finished, but he still managed to win it all.
It got dark and we enjoyed peanut butter and honey sandwiches on a candle lit table. We read for an hour out of "Fudge-a-Mania", solved Josh's mysterious stomach pains with some oatmeal cookies, and had a quick visit from our friends the Wallins. (Who live only a mile away and had power.)
By the time we got kids into bed I was feeling a little better. I had learned there was no school the next day because 2 schools in our district had been severely damaged, and no one was sure which schools had power. Other homes and factories in town had been damaged, and portions of Kokomo (which is in our stake) had been demolished. A dead car, a rotten Sunbeam, and a broken laptop? Not so bad, really.
By 9:30pm the power had been restored. By noon the next day my car had a new battery and was working fine. And Lance said I could use his laptop when I needed it.
It was a bad day, but it could definitely have been much, much worse. And for that I'm grateful.
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